By Zé Beto Maciel – Special for H2FOZ
Professor, doctor, translator and poet Diana Araújo won the election for the Rectorship of Unila on the 17th for a four-year term. The election result has already been approved by the university council and forwarded to the Ministry of Education, which must approve it by June, when the term of the current rector, Gleisson Brito, ends.
In this interview, Diana Araújo states that the election of a female professor as rector is significant and truly represents inclusion and the proposal for Latin American integration. “Political practices at Unila also need to somehow reflect the inclusive sense of our university.”
At this point, according to the professor, it is difficult to think about opening new courses at Unila, although a long list has already been approved by the university's board of directors. “Today, there are 29 undergraduate courses with a huge shortage of teachers, classrooms and laboratories, among others.”
Diana Araújo advocates for the university to have a greater presence in the cities of the triple border region. “I think that Unila’s participation in the so-called external community needs to be much more comprehensive. Not only with the extension projects that we have, but with a more concrete, permanent extension agenda in certain sectors of the university and the city. As well as a research agenda that also engages with local needs and demands.”
“We must always remember that we are on a trinational border and this is crucial for Unila’s activities in the territory. We can be present not only in Foz do Iguaçu, but also work cooperatively in this international solidarity with neighboring cities in Argentina and Paraguay,” he adds.
Below is the interview:
How symbolic is the election of a female professor at Unila? What could this mean?
The election of a woman as a professor, as the first rector of Unila, is very significant because although we have a short life, we have only had male figures in management, in senior management, practically men in the rectorship.
It is important because it has a pedagogical meaning, it has a formative meaning for our own students, for the academic community itself. Unila intends to be a truly inclusive university, a university that truly promotes Latin American integration. It would be unacceptable if we could not set an example with our own practices. So political practices at Unila also need to somehow reflect the inclusive meaning of our university.
Unila reaches its 13th anniversary with some adjustments to its courses. What can we expect from now on? Will there be new courses? Will they be more comprehensive, focused on citizenship development?
Our courses must be strongly focused on the development of citizenship, and not just a citizenship focused on the national level, but also on the regional level. The search for training for coexistence in Latin America, for cultural, political, economic and scientific coexistence in all areas. The citizenship that is sought here is Latin American and Caribbean.
At this moment, it is difficult to think about opening new courses, although we have a long list already approved by the higher council, but it is difficult to think about opening new courses at this moment because today there are 29 undergraduate courses with a huge deficit of teachers, classrooms and laboratories, including.
I read some of the material from the communications departments of public universities and there is a term that bothers me a lot – the “external community”. How can the university overcome this barrier and have a more fruitful interaction/relationship in the cities and regions where they are based? What has Unila done about this and what more can it do?
The relationship with the external community is very fundamental and we have been working on this in a very incipient way. We need to be part of the committees of the secretariats, the local committees, the culture committees, the education committees. Today, we are involved in this in a very inactive and incipient way.
I think that Unila's participation in the so-called external community needs to be much more comprehensive. Not only with the extension projects that we have, but with a more concrete, permanent extension agenda in certain sectors of the university and the city. As well as a research agenda that also engages with local needs and demands.
We must always remember that we are on a trinational border and this is crucial for Unila's activities in the territory. We can be present not only in Foz do Iguaçu, but also work cooperatively in this international solidarity with neighboring cities in Argentina and Paraguay.
Unila in Itaipu, PTI next to Itaipu, Vila A Inteligente near Itaipu, other types of infrastructure and equipment near Itaipu – it even seems like a separate city to me. Can Unila be extended to Porto Meira, for example, the Bubas occupation, Três Lagoas, Rincão São Francisco, and so on? What is your opinion on this?
Today, we even have some projects in Bubas, for example. But what is our extension agenda? What is our research agenda? A more concrete policy. And that is what we will need to improve a lot. In order to maintain programs. To maintain a constant and permanent presence in the territory, and not sporadically, depending on whether or not certain projects are renewed.
Are you in favor of resuming construction of the Unila headquarters as per Niemeyer's original project or adapting the project, mainly due to its high cost?
Today, there is already a position formed in the sense of finishing the part of the Niemeyer project that has already been built. There is a part, which is not even halfway, a percentage more or less around 45% of the original project that is already structured. It is already more or less built.
The intention would be to resume this part by making the necessary adjustments so that the project can maintain funding and be maintained, that is, so that we have a project that does not require a very high cost. All of this will have to be negotiated, but since this is a public project, it is unthinkable that this project will remain unfinished; it needs to be finished.
This is what I think, a position we took during the campaign and that we intend to maintain. Now, what will be the destination? Which parts of Unila will they occupy? If this part of the Niemeyer project has already been raised. All of this will still require a lot of dialogue, a lot of internal consultation with the Unila community.
The country has spent more than four years with budget cuts in public universities, which has left these schools on the brink of collapse. What has not been done and what can be done with the budget recomposition?
The budget adjustment for Unila has several fundamental purposes. We need not only infrastructure, building classrooms, the whole issue of the university restaurant, the expansion of the laboratory, all of this is very, very fundamental for us.
A significant portion of our budget is earmarked for rent. We need to build this budget for infrastructure, but we also need to expand it and fund an academic community. Many people have a selection process focused on affirmative action, and we need to place greater emphasis on resources, we need to allocate more resources to student retention and thus try to reduce our dropout rate, which is currently very high.
Profile
Diana Araujo Pereira is a professor of Latin American literature and cultural mediation at Unila. She has a master's and doctorate in Hispanic literature, is a poet and translator.
She is a researcher linked to the group “Paraguay: society, territory and culture” and “Educal – Interdisciplinary Research Group on Education in Latin America”.
Among his publications, Cultural Mediation in Latin America: Utopias in Progress stands out, in addition to the organized books: Imaginary Cartography of the Triple Frontier, Colonial Imaginaries: Continuities and Ruptures in Contemporary Latin America and Poetics and Politics of Language in the Process of Decolonization.
He also wrote Broken Horizons, The Skin of the Roads and Other Poems and the novel Fable of the (End and the) Beginning of the World. His research interests include cultural mediation, Latin American poetry, borders and interculturality.
Zé Beto Maciel is a poet and journalist.
